At Newsday, Steve Zipay spoke with former Columbus GM Doug MacLean who expressed shock at how how people could be down on Rick Nash.

MacLean said “every night he was the No. 1 focus, tightly checked, man-on-man, because teams knew if you shut down Rick Nash, you beat Columbus? Now people are telling me he’s overrated. Are you serious?”

He added that Nash’s quiet demeanor reminded him of Hockey Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman from when MacLean was in Detroit, “Quiet guys do their talking on the ice. When Stevie was captain, and I was in Detroit, at first he struggled a bit, but he matured and as he was surrounded by better players, he went to another level.”

MacLean was an assistant with the Red Wings for two seasons in the early 1990s.